_ _ __ __ _ _____ _ _ _
/ \ ___| | __ | \/ | ___| |_ __ _| ___(_) | |_ ___ _ __
/ _ \ / __| |/ / | |\/| |/ _ \ __/ _` | |_ | | | __/ _ \ '__|
/ ___ \\__ \ < | | | | __/ || (_| | _| | | | || __/ |
/_/ \_\___/_|\_\ |_| |_|\___|\__\__,_|_| |_|_|\__\___|_|
querying the hive mind
Best practices for flea treatment in Parkinson's disease households?
We have a relative who has Parkinson's disease, and also has cats. There's no family history of Parkinson's disease so they need to particularly avoid further exposure to pesticides. However, they also have pet cats. It's obvious that people who hold and pet their cats do get some exposure to any of the spot-on treatments that are the mainstay of flea treatments these days. Are some of them safer than others?
Many pesticides are known to increase the risk of Parkinson's, so there's reason to fear that they might therefore speed progression of the disease. We're trying to figure out whether this applies to common flea treatments for cats. So far we have come up with a case report in which an overdose of fiprinil, the active ingredient in Frontline, caused a human to quickly develop severe Parkinson's disease, so that one's definitely out. But are any of the others any better?
First, their cats never go outside, but occasionally fleas do come in, riding on someone's shoes or pants cuffs from the neighborhood, and then the population explodes. In the past, they have used Advantage, Frontline Plus, Revolution, Cheristin, and Brevecto, switching from one to another as fleas seemed to develop a resistance to one previously used. Also note that the house no longer contains carpeting, which used to provide a home for developing flea larvae.
Capstar pills kill all the fleas that bite the cat within 24 hours, but general advice is that it's not very effective unless combined with a flea preventative such as one of the above, since there will be flea larvae developing somewhere in the meantime, ready to jump onto the cats. But that no longer seems like such a good idea! What should they do?
(Here's a list I've compiled of all the pesticides in popular flea treatments for cats (using info from the various products on the Chewy's website): spinetoram, fluralaner, moxidectin, selamectin, sarolaner, imidacloprid, pyriproxyfen, fipronil, (s)-methoprene, dinotefuran, etofenprox, and various ineffective and dangerous essential oils. Plus flea collars with flumethrin, imidacloprid, tetrachlorvinphos, and/or (s)-methoprene.)
posted by metonym on May 08, 2024 at 2:41 PM
---------------------------
Have you looked at the chewable flea and tick medication for cats? It seems like this would greatly reduce the exposure compared to topical treatments. Here is a search on Chewy. For example Comfortis seems like an option that should be effective over time since flea larvae that jump onto the cat will die before they can lay eggs so if all the animals in the home are treated it should keep thing under control even if an occasional flea enters the house.
posted by metahawk at 5:26 PM
---------------------------
I don't know how they'd work for you but the
people in my life who are anti-pesticide really like essential oils and things along those lines. maybe a flea collar would work as a preventative? or I know growing up we used a cedar oil blend on the yard every year to keep the fleas down because my dad was allergic (to fleas/flea bites and like all pesticides/chemicals).
posted by one-half-ole at 5:45 PM
---------------------------
Do not use essential oils on cats. They can cause serious medical problems.
We've been giving our dog a chewable flea and tick med and it seems to be working ok. I'd look into that for sure
posted by restless_nomad at 6:16 PM
---------------------------
When I had a toddler who didn't understand not to pet the kitty we did the cat chewable successfully.
posted by aetg at 6:50 PM
---------------------------
Finally, a question I know something about. I have Parkinson's disease, cats, and fleas. I never used pesticides. I'd actually sit in my home office in shorts and feel an occasional flea on my leg. Good Night to the flea.
Took me about 6 months to kill them. Fleas, I mean, not the cats :)
posted by baegucb at 10:47 PM
---------------------------
Our cat doesn't like the spot on flea treatment so we get a six monthly injection called Program in the UK, known as Lufenuron generically.
posted by TheCassiniDivision at 12:43 AM
---------------------------
Comfortis is the perfect answer, and so is the injectable if it turns out we have it in this country. Administering a long-lasting product internally instead of spotting it on avoids the whole problem, and we had no idea those products existed. I am so happy I asked. Thank you all very much!
I'm glad you were able to kill off your fleas manually, baegucb. It hasn't worked in this case, as the fleas are too good at hiding under the long-haired cat's voluminous fur.
(Unfortunately essential oils are not a good choice. If you look at the essential oil products on Chewy that claim to kill fleas, there are many awful pictures of huge weeping sores on cats' necks that customers have posted in the reviews. Evidently the toxicity of the essential oils is not much less for cats than for insects.)
posted by metonym at 10:21 AM
---------------------------